Israel made a "big mistake" by ending Operation Cast Lead without overthrowing the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah said on Thursday.

His remarks came as the PA security forces intensified their crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank.

"It was a big mistake to end the war this way," the official said. "The fact that Hamas is still in power is bad for all."

The PA leadership had decided to take draconian measures to thwart any attempt by Hamas to stir unrest in the West Bank, the official also said.

"There's no room for these Hamas thugs in the West Bank," he said. "We won't allow Hamas to turn the West Bank into another Islamic republic."
PA representatives have accused Hamas of killing and kneecapping dozens of Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip over the past few weeks.

During the past few days, the PA security forces arrested more than 30 Hamas supporters and figures in different parts of the West Bank. One of those who arrested was Khaled Amayreh, a journalist from the Hebron area, who appeared on a local TV station and allegedly voiced sympathy for Hamas.

Amayreh was released after being held in a prison cell for 55 hours.
Other detainees include university students and teachers, as well as mosque imams and leading Muslim figures, especially in the northern West Bank.

Among the detainees are Sheikh Omar Manna', the imam of the largest mosque in Tulkarm, and Adnan al-Safarini, an employee of the PA's Ministry of Wakf Affairs.

Sources close to Hamas said the majority of the detainees were being held in PA security installations where some of them had been "brutally tortured"

by their interrogators.

The sources said that Islamboli Badir, the son of slain Islamic Jihad official Riad Islamboli, required medical treatment after being tortured with electrical shocks by members of the PA's General Intelligence Service.
According to the sources, at least 25 Hamas supporters were arrested by the PA security forces in the West Bank almost immediately after they were released from Israeli prison. They include Hussein Dib, a school teacher from a village near Tulkarm, and Hani Barabrah and Ala al-A'araj, both students at An-Najah University in Nablus.

The sources said that more than 200 Hamas supporters have been rounded up by forces loyal to PA president Mahmoud Abbas since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead.

On Wednesday night, the PA security forces in Nablus arrested Sheikh Fayad al-Aghbar, a prominent Hamas figure in the city. The PA said the man was arrested for allegedly forging checks and defrauding local residents.

Palestinians in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post the PA security forces refused to grant them permission to demonstrate in solidarity with the Gaza Strip residents unless they agreed to chant slogans in favor of Abbas and raise Fatah flags.

Earlier this week, the PA leadership organized a rally in the center of Ramallah in support of Abbas and Fatah. Most of those who participated were civil servants and school children who were instructed by the PA to attend the rally.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior PLO official closely associated with Abbas, on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Hamas and accused it of seeking to establish an "emirate of darkness" in the Gaza Strip.
Abed Rabbo, who often serves as a spokesman for Abbas, told reporters in Ramallah that Hamas was "exploiting" the blood of the Palestinians in Gaza to cover up for its plan to permanently separate the West Bank from the Strip.

"We won't allow the conspiracy of splitting the West Bank from the Gaza Strip to pass," he warned. "We won't allow Hamas to destroy our national project, regardless of the price."

Abed Rabbo accused Hamas of directing its guns against Fatah activists in Gaza before and after the cease-fire with Israel. Hamas had turned hospitals, schools and universities in the Gaza Strip into temporary centers for holding and torturing Fatah detainees on suspicion of collaboration with Israel, he said.

I don't like this half work done and go back out, if you want to wage war you should do to it till the end (one real victory and one real defeat). I don't think this mercy on Hamas will be good for palestinians or Israelis, unless the same happens like happened with Hezbollah (end of the hostilities for at least a decent amount of time now).

It now is like taring of a sticker that is stuck on your beard very very slowly, wich is painful for a long period of time.

But somehow I find that doubtful, if hostilities begin again then all those civilian casualties on the palestinian side will have died for nothing. And they will regret that they haven't pushed through to remove Hamas as would happen in a normal war where both sides don't quit until one of them surrenders. No one has surrendered, so Israel and Palestine are technically still in their never-ending war and palestinian civilians are paying the price for the war of Hamas both in money (aid) and in blood.

Israel made a "big mistake" by ending Operation Cast Lead without overthrowing the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah said on Thursday.

His remarks came as the PA security forces intensified their crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank.

"It was a big mistake to end the war this way," the official said. "The fact that Hamas is still in power is bad for all."

The PA leadership had decided to take draconian measures to thwart any attempt by Hamas to stir unrest in the West Bank, the official also said.

"There's no room for these Hamas thugs in the West Bank," he said. "We won't allow Hamas to turn the West Bank into another Islamic republic."
PA representatives have accused Hamas of killing and kneecapping dozens of Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip over the past few weeks.

During the past few days, the PA security forces arrested more than 30 Hamas supporters and figures in different parts of the West Bank. One of those who arrested was Khaled Amayreh, a journalist from the Hebron area, who appeared on a local TV station and allegedly voiced sympathy for Hamas.

Amayreh was released after being held in a prison cell for 55 hours.
Other detainees include university students and teachers, as well as mosque imams and leading Muslim figures, especially in the northern West Bank.

Among the detainees are Sheikh Omar Manna', the imam of the largest mosque in Tulkarm, and Adnan al-Safarini, an employee of the PA's Ministry of Wakf Affairs.

Sources close to Hamas said the majority of the detainees were being held in PA security installations where some of them had been "brutally tortured"

by their interrogators.

The sources said that Islamboli Badir, the son of slain Islamic Jihad official Riad Islamboli, required medical treatment after being tortured with electrical shocks by members of the PA's General Intelligence Service.
According to the sources, at least 25 Hamas supporters were arrested by the PA security forces in the West Bank almost immediately after they were released from Israeli prison. They include Hussein Dib, a school teacher from a village near Tulkarm, and Hani Barabrah and Ala al-A'araj, both students at An-Najah University in Nablus.

The sources said that more than 200 Hamas supporters have been rounded up by forces loyal to PA president Mahmoud Abbas since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead.

On Wednesday night, the PA security forces in Nablus arrested Sheikh Fayad al-Aghbar, a prominent Hamas figure in the city. The PA said the man was arrested for allegedly forging checks and defrauding local residents.

Palestinians in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post the PA security forces refused to grant them permission to demonstrate in solidarity with the Gaza Strip residents unless they agreed to chant slogans in favor of Abbas and raise Fatah flags.

Earlier this week, the PA leadership organized a rally in the center of Ramallah in support of Abbas and Fatah. Most of those who participated were civil servants and school children who were instructed by the PA to attend the rally.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior PLO official closely associated with Abbas, on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Hamas and accused it of seeking to establish an "emirate of darkness" in the Gaza Strip.
Abed Rabbo, who often serves as a spokesman for Abbas, told reporters in Ramallah that Hamas was "exploiting" the blood of the Palestinians in Gaza to cover up for its plan to permanently separate the West Bank from the Strip.

"We won't allow the conspiracy of splitting the West Bank from the Gaza Strip to pass," he warned. "We won't allow Hamas to destroy our national project, regardless of the price."

Abed Rabbo accused Hamas of directing its guns against Fatah activists in Gaza before and after the cease-fire with Israel. Hamas had turned hospitals, schools and universities in the Gaza Strip into temporary centers for holding and torturing Fatah detainees on suspicion of collaboration with Israel, he said.

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Every get the feeling that Israel doesn't really WANT to end it. A peaceful and untied group of Palestinians and Arabs may pose a bigger threat to Israels ultimate objectives.

The PA (Palestinian Authority ) is a corrupt organization that is ran by a group of thugs and criminals.

They do nothing for the Palestinian people and are just pawns for their Zionist masters.

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And that makes Hamas somehow look better?

Remember how Hamas treated their fellow palestinians from Fatah in Gaza when they claimed their election victory?

"They do nothing for the Palestinian people and are just pawns for their Zionist masters."

They have protected the palestinian people in the West bank from violence from the IDF by not provoking them to wage war and brought them prosperity, Hamas has not protected the palestinians as much as they could by provoking Israel to wage war in Gaza otherwise there would not be so many dead.

The palestinian people who have lived under Fatah live a lot better then the ones living under Hamas, with a corrupt government or not.

Israel made a "big mistake" by ending Operation Cast Lead without overthrowing the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah said on Thursday.

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The big mistake is thinking that one can crush a people by beating their army.

Until Isreal realizes that you cannot starve people and expect them to like being starved, HAMAS or something like HAMAS is going to keep coming to the fore.

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It is Hamas, not Israel that is responsible for the impoverished conditions under which the people of Gaza live. Hamas came to prominence during the first intifada at a time when the Palestinians had the fastest growing economy in the ME. There were no fences and hundreds of thousands of Israelis and Arabs passed freely over the border between Israel and the territories. The Israeli civil administration in the territories, which Israel had set up soon after the 1967 to attend to the needs of the Palestinians was in the process of being turned over to Palestinians from the bottom up while the Israelis carried on an internal debate about how they might protect themselves from another attack from the Arab nations and Arab terrorists without continuing to govern the Palestinians.

The first intifada had nothing to do with economic conditions or with issues of personal freedom. It followed nearly sixty years of anti Jewish incitement from all aspects of Arab culture beginning with the first anti Jewish riots in Jerusalem in 1926, the massacre of the Jewish community in Hebron that dated back to biblical times; the first intifada was touched off by a traffic accident in which an Israeli soldier lost control of his jeep and in the ensuing accident four Arabs were killed.

During the first intifada the need to protect the Israeli public from terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians led to the construction of the Gaza fence, which slowed down commerce and thus slowed down economic growth in Gaza and, to a lesser extent, in the West Bank. Even so, when Israel created the Palestinian Authority, the economies of Gaza and the West Bank were still growing, albeit at a slower rate than before the first intifada, and despite the gross incompetence and shameless corruption of the Arafat regime, the Palestinian economy still continued to grow right up until the waves of violence produced by the second intifada forced Israel to reoccupy the West Bank and tighten security at the Gaza border crossings in order to protect Israeli civilians from Palestinian terrorist attacks.

Clearly, Palestinian violence is not caused by harsh economic conditions but rather the harsh economic conditions were caused by Palestinian violence. Had the Palestinians behaved in the rational ways you suggest, they would have enjoyed a period of increasing prosperity over the last twenty years and almost certainly have a state of their own by now.

Israel made a "big mistake" by ending Operation Cast Lead without overthrowing the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian Authority official in Ramallah said on Thursday.

His remarks came as the PA security forces intensified their crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank.

"It was a big mistake to end the war this way," the official said. "The fact that Hamas is still in power is bad for all."

The PA leadership had decided to take draconian measures to thwart any attempt by Hamas to stir unrest in the West Bank, the official also said.

"There's no room for these Hamas thugs in the West Bank," he said. "We won't allow Hamas to turn the West Bank into another Islamic republic."
PA representatives have accused Hamas of killing and kneecapping dozens of Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip over the past few weeks.

During the past few days, the PA security forces arrested more than 30 Hamas supporters and figures in different parts of the West Bank. One of those who arrested was Khaled Amayreh, a journalist from the Hebron area, who appeared on a local TV station and allegedly voiced sympathy for Hamas.

Amayreh was released after being held in a prison cell for 55 hours.
Other detainees include university students and teachers, as well as mosque imams and leading Muslim figures, especially in the northern West Bank.

Among the detainees are Sheikh Omar Manna', the imam of the largest mosque in Tulkarm, and Adnan al-Safarini, an employee of the PA's Ministry of Wakf Affairs.

Sources close to Hamas said the majority of the detainees were being held in PA security installations where some of them had been "brutally tortured"

by their interrogators.

The sources said that Islamboli Badir, the son of slain Islamic Jihad official Riad Islamboli, required medical treatment after being tortured with electrical shocks by members of the PA's General Intelligence Service.
According to the sources, at least 25 Hamas supporters were arrested by the PA security forces in the West Bank almost immediately after they were released from Israeli prison. They include Hussein Dib, a school teacher from a village near Tulkarm, and Hani Barabrah and Ala al-A'araj, both students at An-Najah University in Nablus.

The sources said that more than 200 Hamas supporters have been rounded up by forces loyal to PA president Mahmoud Abbas since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead.

On Wednesday night, the PA security forces in Nablus arrested Sheikh Fayad al-Aghbar, a prominent Hamas figure in the city. The PA said the man was arrested for allegedly forging checks and defrauding local residents.

Palestinians in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post the PA security forces refused to grant them permission to demonstrate in solidarity with the Gaza Strip residents unless they agreed to chant slogans in favor of Abbas and raise Fatah flags.

Earlier this week, the PA leadership organized a rally in the center of Ramallah in support of Abbas and Fatah. Most of those who participated were civil servants and school children who were instructed by the PA to attend the rally.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior PLO official closely associated with Abbas, on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Hamas and accused it of seeking to establish an "emirate of darkness" in the Gaza Strip.
Abed Rabbo, who often serves as a spokesman for Abbas, told reporters in Ramallah that Hamas was "exploiting" the blood of the Palestinians in Gaza to cover up for its plan to permanently separate the West Bank from the Strip.

"We won't allow the conspiracy of splitting the West Bank from the Gaza Strip to pass," he warned. "We won't allow Hamas to destroy our national project, regardless of the price."

Abed Rabbo accused Hamas of directing its guns against Fatah activists in Gaza before and after the cease-fire with Israel. Hamas had turned hospitals, schools and universities in the Gaza Strip into temporary centers for holding and torturing Fatah detainees on suspicion of collaboration with Israel, he said.

Click to expand...

Every get the feeling that Israel doesn't really WANT to end it. A peaceful and untied group of Palestinians and Arabs may pose a bigger threat to Israels ultimate objectives.

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